Personnel issues and ethics inquiries plagued Rockland government this year

Monday

Dec 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2008 at 8:43 PM

Allison Manning

ROCKLAND

Personnel issues and ethics inquiries plagued Rockland’s government in 2008.

In August, the state inspector general found that Kenneth Karlson repeatedly abused his public office while serving on the conservation commission from 2003 to 2005. Karlson extorted money and favors from people seeking permission to build in town, the inspector general said.

In January, the inspector general revealed that water commissioner Thomas Hannigan helped funnel more than $26,000 in kickbacks from a construction company to the town’s former sewer superintendent, Gregory Thomson. Because the statute of limitations had expired, Hannigan was not criminally charged. He resigned in May.

Former state Rep. Allan Chiocca took over as town administrator in June, replacing Bradley Plante, who retired in January.

The school department extensively renovated four science labs at the high school, part of a series of projects needed to ensure that the school is reaccredited in 2011. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges put the school on probation in 2007 for having failed since 2001 to update its inadequate and outdated science labs.

The push for a new middle school continued in April when voters approved a $295,000 debt-exclusion override to pay for engineering and architectural work.

In December, however, Superintendent John Retchless warned that the potential for a $1.7 million school budget deficit next year might necessitate closing an elementary school and could put the middle school project and state funding in jeopardy.